Politicians can be divided into ‘straights’, ‘fixers’ and ‘maddies,’ and Malcolm Turnbull must quickly find his inner fixer. The transformation isn’t impossible because Turnbull has already tried the other two categories. In his first stint …

For the past decade, successive prime ministers have been grappling with the question of how best to organise the Australian government to face a widening array of oft-interconnected national security issues. Now, with a shifting …

The Canberra ministerial adviser—the Minder—was born on 5 December 1972, when Gough Whitlam became Prime Minister. Like much that Whitlam did, the birth was attended by high purpose, low politics and scrambling. The short, tumultuous …

Australia’s coup culture isn’t about generals rolling over politicians and tanks rolling through the streets. The Oz coup culture is concerned with what political party rooms do to unpopular leaders. The willingness of parties to …

Summit season blossoms. Behold the annual display of the shift of Australian international policy—in symbolism and substance—to the personal care of the Prime Minister. The structure and style of the way Australia does foreign policy …